- .13 micron low-k process
- 160+ million transistors
- 16 pixel pipelines
- 6 vertex shader pipelines
- 400MHz core clock
- 490MHz memory clock
- 256MB DDR3 memory
- 3Dc
- SmartShader HD
- DirectX 9.0c
- Pixel Shader 2.0b
- Vertex Shader 2.0
- OpenGL 2.0
- Temporal AA
- Microtuner 2132
- MultiMedia Center 9.09
ATI introduced the X800 (R420) series in June of 2004 with the launch of the RADEON X800XT PE, the X800XT and the X800 Pro. The X800XT PE and the X800XT were based upon the same chip, with the same number of pixel pipelines; just the XT was lower clocked in core and memory than the XT PE. The X800XT PE came with a clock speed of 520 MHz, the X800XT with a clock speed of 500 MHz.
ATI decided when designing the A-I-W X800XL to use their mid-high-end card, the X800XL. The X800XL has 16 pixel pipelines, and 6 vertex shader pipelines, like its bigger brother, the X800XT PE. The difference being the AIW X800XL is clocked at a more modest 400 MHz for the core, giving 23% less fill rate than its bigger brother, the X800XT PE. The X800XL has 6 vertex shader pipelines, giving a maximum polygon throughput of 600 million a second theoretical.
The R430 is based upon the TSMC's .11 micron process. .11 micron is the same process NVIDIA uses for their high-end 7800GTX, but the X800XL is designed for high volume production. ATI introduced their X800 series on .13 low-k process from TSMC, but the X800XL uses the .11 micron process.
Key features of the A-I-W X800XL include support for Microsoft's DirectX 9.0c Pixel Shader 2.0b and Vertex Shader 2.0. Microsoft introduced DirectX 9.0 in 2002, the same year ATI released the RADEON 9700 Pro. The X800XL is capable of 1536 pixel shader instructions in a single pass, as compared to the 9700 Pro/9800 series cards, which had a maximum of 96 shader instructions in a single pass. Vertex Shader 2.0 allows for a maximum of 65080 instructions in a pass with looping and branching.
